Australia’s newest data consultancy is positioning itself at the critical intersect of leading-edge analytics tools and the rapidly changing regulatory landscape governing data protections, with a proposition focussed on delivering fully-compliant data solutions that will drive growth.
Launched in response to a gap in the market as Australia adopts a more rigorous data protection regime, Civic Data offers both agency and in-house clients a full suite of vendor-agnostic data analytics solutions, strategic data consulting services and enterprise data compliance audits.
The new Sydney-based consultancy, part of the independent Civic Agencies group of advisory firms, is helmed by directors Chris Brinkworth, Jason Fonseca and Jason Aldworth, with Liam Walsh, the former ANZ lead for Facebook, appointed as non-executive chairman.
According to Walsh, the arrival of Civic Data coincides with a material and meaningful shift in data privacy and compliance.
“The wholesale changes that businesses need to make to accommodate and support their customers’ privacy require specialist knowledge, which very few companies are set up to meet,” he said. “Civic Data, however, has a deep and niche capability to deliver on the shifting privacy requirements that the Australian Government will continue to lay down.”
For Jason Aldworth, also a founding director of The Civic Group government relations agency, the Civic Data proposition is not only a force multiplier for the Civic Agencies group of consultancies but represents a game changer for the wider Australian marketing technology ecosystem.
“Data in the form of research and insight is a hallmark of Civic Agencies campaigns,” he said. “Whether it is a government relations, B2B, shareholder or consumer-focused campaign, with the additional experience and expertise of Civic Data behind us we can now target audiences with exponentially more accuracy, which means greater impact, effectiveness and, ultimately, return on investment.”
“Civic Data’s capabilities, when combined with our understanding of the complexities of Australia’s evolving data protection regime, will be unrivalled as a data partner able to drive impactful campaigns that clients can be confident are fully compliant.”
Civic Data director Chris Brinkworth believes Australian enterprises are largely ill-prepared for the significant and rapidly approaching changes to data protection regulations.
“Change is coming to Australian data protection laws and Civic Data is the culmination of 12 months of planning in time to offer solid advice on how Australian businesses can avoid the pending regulatory bottlenecks that we saw drastically hinder growth under the European and US implementations of similar regimes,” he said.
“Having reviewed dozens of public Australian websites recently and audited their data flow, consent and governance, it’s clear there is a big market there for us and many CEOs and CMOs who do not realise just how precarious their position is.”
“Those Australian businesses that are able to adapt quickest to the next phase of digital change driven by the new data protection regimes will have an immediate and significant competitive advantage.”
“Civic Data offers the ability to locate, acquire and measure customers while working within a ‘privacy by design’ consent framework for a client’s internal and partner ecosystem, without jeopardising trust – we call this model ‘compliant growth’. It’s planned, considered and not a reactionary offering. We have the tech, talent and experience required for such a serious priority.”
“We’ve chosen to work within the Civic Agencies group to avoid conflict with independent media and marketing agencies that need our advisory assistance just as much as anyone else will; the fact that Civic are trusted by clients on many highly sensitive and pressing issues, means that we also can hit the ground running through their trusted and proven network.”
According to Civic Data director and technology lead Jason Fonseca, data is a business’s most valuable asset and yet it is one of its most under-utilised.
“In today’s digitally evolving marketing landscape, privacy has become an incredibly important and complex issue. The value of data as a company asset has become invaluable, as its use drives more informed decisions, insights and, ultimately, business success,” he said.
“Over the past ten years, I’ve experienced well-intentioned data architecture implemented in ways that have, unfortunately, made it near impossible for an organisation to maintain customer rights over data.”
“This is why our unique and innovative approach, based on these key learnings, is ‘privacy by design’, which takes the relevant, proactive and strategically aligned steps to ensure that a business can afford to maintain its customers’ data and explore the true possibilities of its value.”
